Village misusing power on FOIA requests

Wheeling's approach to its civically engaged resident is emblematic of government misuse of power. Illinoisans have the right to evaluate government actions by using the Freedom of Information Act, which is designed by Illinois lawmakers to give citizens a mechanism to hold public bodies and officials accountable.

Yet, FOIA provides public bodies several mechanisms to manage public record requests. These include provisions governing unduly burdensome requests, voluminous requests and recurrent requesters. Rather than avail itself of these tools, Wheeling issued an open letter purportedly to educate Wheeling residents. Instead, Wheeling takes the opportunity to publicly disparage a resident by recounting her public employment history.

Ms. Wilson's efforts to hold municipal officials accountable resulted in at least two positive outcomes. Yet, Wheeling blatantly treats Ms. Wilson with contempt, including by a Wheeling official directly instructing her to "shut up" at an open meeting, and by estimating outlandish costs of its FOIA workload. Wheeling claims commitments to transparency and civic engagement, which is belied by both Wheeling's issuance of the open letter and its failure to use legal means to manage its FOIA request paperwork. Wheeling's issuance of the letter reeks of sour grapes, and its threat of legal action against Ms. Wilson serves to intimidate others from lawful civic engagement.

Wheeling's public effort to embarrass its resident is an example of the misuse of government power to silence citizens with whom government officials do not agree.

Instead of resorting to this tactic, Wheeling should recognize this opportunity to work with its residents toward improving Wheeling's transparency measures to both obviate the need for FOIA requests and demonstrate the falsity of any allegations made by so-called hijackers of municipal resources.

Jonathan Stone

Chicago